Psychological Horror games on Steam, measured
Horror built on dread, unreliable perception and the mind, more than on monsters alone.
2,099 games tagged Psychological Horror came out on Steam in 2025 (1,766 in 2024), and 1,799 have come out so far in 2026, +28% on the same weeks of 2025.
Of the 2,707 released between Jan 1, 2024 and Jun 30, 2025, 5.8% reached 1,000 reviews, against 4.2% across all of Steam (1.4× the Steam rate).
Most of the niche prices itself under $5 (1.7% reached 1,000 reviews there); $20 and up did best at 45.3%.
5,589 more Psychological Horror pages are on Steam but not released yet, 351 of them dated within 90 days.
Counted game by game from Steam's store on Sep 27, 2026. How we counted, and what the numbers can't tell you.
How fast the niche is filling
Games tagged Psychological Horror released each year. 2026 is counted to Sep 27, 2026; the same weeks of 2025 saw 1,411.
How its games did
Games released Jan 1, 2024 to Jun 30, 2025, so every one has been on sale at least 14 months, against every Steam game released in the same window. Reaching 1,000 reviews is the usual rule of thumb for roughly $150,000 in gross revenue; 100 reviews is real traction.
| Psychological Horror | All of Steam | |
|---|---|---|
| Games released | 2,707 | 24,918 |
| Reached 10 reviews | 67.9% | 53.2% |
| Reached 100 reviews | 24.6% | 17.3% |
| Reached 1,000 reviews | 5.8%95% range 5% to 6.7% | 4.2% |
| Median reviews | 24 | 11 |
| Median list price (paid games) | $4.99 | $4.99 |
| Free to play | 13.9% | 17.7% |
Price and outcome
The same cohort by undiscounted US list price on the day we counted. Higher prices go with bigger teams and more content, and a game that cut its price after a weak launch now sits in a cheaper band, so read this as what games priced like yours did, not as proof that raising a price lifts sales.
| Price | Games | 100+ reviews | 1,000+ reviews | Median reviews |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Under $5 | 1,372 | 13.2% | 1.7%1.2% to 2.6% | 13 |
| $5 to $9.99 | 650 | 27.2% | 7.2%5.5% to 9.5% | 25 |
| $10 to $14.99 | 165 | 37.6% | 8.5%5.1% to 13.7% | 46 |
| $15 to $19.99 | 80 | 57.5% | 16.3%9.7% to 25.8% | 187 |
| $20 and up | 64 | 73.4% | 45.3%33.7% to 57.4% | 620 |
— fewer than 20 games, too few to compare.
Sub-niches: where the odds and the crowding differ
Other tags that appear in the top seven tags of Psychological Horror games. Tags that describe a look or a platform (Pixel Graphics, Singleplayer) are left out. Players add tags to games that are already popular, so narrow tags flatter their hit rates: compare sub-niches with each other, not with Steam.
Best odds
- Online Co-Op: 17.8% reached 1,000 reviews (101 games)
- Choices Matter: 13.4% reached 1,000 reviews (97 games)
- Multiple Endings: 10% reached 1,000 reviews (170 games)
Filling fastest in 2026
- Choose Your Own Adventure: 94 so far vs 47 (+100%)
- Visual Novel: 227 so far vs 132 (+72%)
- Detective: 51 so far vs 32 (+59%)
| Tag | Games (2024–2025 cohort) | 1,000+ reviews | 100+ reviews | 2026 so far vs 2025 | Unreleased |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Horror | 1,455 | 5.5%4.4% to 6.8% | 25.7% | 953 vs 758+26% | 2,961 |
| Puzzle | 596 | 4%2.7% to 5.9% | 18.8% | 370 vs 321+15% | 1,096 |
| Walking Simulator | 502 | 3.2%2% to 5.1% | 21.9% | 319 vs 285+12% | 699 |
| Survival Horror | 354 | 6.2%4.1% to 9.2% | 23.7% | 229 vs 190+21% | 999 |
| Visual Novel | 265 | 4.2%2.3% to 7.3% | 30.9% | 227 vs 132+72% | 552 |
| Action-Adventure | 290 | 3.4%1.9% to 6.2% | 13.8% | 164 vs 144+14% | 637 |
| Mystery | 240 | 3.3%1.7% to 6.4% | 26.3% | 172 vs 137+26% | 571 |
| Hidden Object | 207 | 2.4%1% to 5.5% | 12.6% | 124 vs 100+24% | 200 |
| Interactive Fiction | 184 | 2.2%0.8% to 5.5% | 17.9% | 141 vs 102+38% | 396 |
| Multiple Endings | 170 | 10%6.3% to 15.4% | 32.4% | 124 vs 90+38% | 328 |
| Immersive Sim | 172 | 4.1%2% to 8.2% | 26.2% | 118 vs 95+24% | 299 |
| Thriller | 185 | 2.2%0.8% to 5.4% | 28.1% | 98 vs 92+7% | 313 |
| FPS | 144 | 4.2%1.9% to 8.8% | 18.8% | 91 vs 77+18% | 278 |
| Point & Click | 134 | 5.2%2.6% to 10.4% | 26.9% | 97 vs 73+33% | 287 |
| Psychological | 125 | 3.2%1.3% to 7.9% | 14.4% | 92 vs 72+28% | 283 |
| Choices Matter | 97 | 13.4%8% to 21.6% | 41.2% | 109 vs 69+58% | 346 |
| Choose Your Own Adventure | 88 | 5.7%2.5% to 12.6% | 23.9% | 94 vs 47+100% | 206 |
| Online Co-Op | 101 | 17.8%11.6% to 26.4% | 49.5% | 81 vs 53+53% | 307 |
| Supernatural | 112 | 2.7%0.9% to 7.6% | 24.1% | 52 vs 44+18% | 222 |
| Platformer | 108 | 5.6%2.6% to 11.6% | 11.1% | 49 vs 60−18% | 132 |
| 3D Platformer | 107 | 3.7%1.5% to 9.2% | 14% | 43 vs 58−26% | 107 |
| Precision Platformer | 107 | 1.9%0.5% to 6.6% | 6.5% | 35 vs 57−39% | 83 |
| Shooter | 84 | 4.8%1.9% to 11.6% | 16.7% | 48 vs 43+12% | 181 |
| Detective | 77 | 5.2%2% to 12.6% | 19.5% | 51 vs 32+59% | 167 |
— fewer than 20 games in the cohort. Ranges are 95% intervals.
What broke through in the last 12 months
The most-reviewed Psychological Horror games released since Sep 27, 2025. Still young, so these counts are still climbing.
- Subnautica 272,198 reviews, 93% positive · $29.99 · May 14, 2026
- Escape the Backrooms46,389 reviews, 88% positive · $9.99 · Oct 23, 2025
- Marathon36,374 reviews, 84% positive · $39.99 · Mar 5, 2026
- RV There Yet?31,477 reviews, 89% positive · $7.99 · Oct 21, 2025
- How to Fish25,230 reviews, 95% positive · $7.99 · Aug 20, 2026
- Escape from Tarkov13,361 reviews, 62% positive · $49.99 · Nov 15, 2025
- Halloween: The Game9,495 reviews, 68% positive · $39.99 · Sep 8, 2026
- The Weeping Swan: Ten Days of the City's Fall8,275 reviews, 58% positive · $11.99 · Apr 2, 2026
What's coming
5,589 Psychological Horror pages are live on Steam but not released: 351 with a date in the next 90 days, 1,224 with a later date, month or quarter, and 4,014 saying "Coming soon" or "To be announced". For comparison, 2,099 came out in all of 2025.
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How we counted, and what the numbers can't tell you
- Every game carrying Steam's Psychological Horror tag (tag id 1721), read page by page from Steam's public store search on Sep 27, 2026: 15,372 games, 9,783 of them released (Steam's own released count: 9,787). Games only: no DLC, soundtracks or software.
- Success rates use one fixed cohort, games released Jan 1, 2024 to Jun 30, 2025, because review counts grow with age: a game from last month has not had time to reach 1,000 reviews, and comparing it with a 2024 game would measure age, not success.
- Review counts are the totals Steam's search shows a US visitor, which may count English-language reviews only. Steam prints no count under 10 reviews, so "under 10" is as precise as the data gets. Prices are the undiscounted US list price on the day we counted, not the launch price: a game that cut its price after launch counts at the new price.
- Tags are community tags. Players add them to games that are already popular, which flatters the hit rates of narrow tags. Delisted games and age-restricted games are not in Steam's default search, so they are not here either.
- "Reached 1,000 reviews" is a proxy for commercial success (roughly $150,000 gross by the common rule of thumb), not a revenue figure. We publish no revenue estimates.
- The full aggregate is public: /api/niches/data. Cite it as "Steam Niche Index, Steam Page Analyzer, September 2026".